Publications

Key Takeaways Ten years after the Paris Agreement, climate diplomacy shifts from ambition-setting to delivery pressures: While successive COPs have expanded participation, transparency, and financing, the persistent gap between commitments and implementation has placed pressure on presenting measurable outcomes. COP30 marks a shift from norm-setting to implementation credibility: COP30 in Belém prioritized delivery of climate… Continue reading Ten Years After the Paris Agreement: Outcomes, Implications, and Strategic Pathways for the Gulf

On April 28, 2026, the United Arab Emirates announced it would end its 59-year membership in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) effective May 1, 2026. The UAE’s abrupt decision marks one of the most consequential shifts in global energy governance since Russia joined the OPEC+ coalition in 2016. While Emirati officials publicly framed the move as an economic decision designed to… Continue reading The UAE’s Exit from OPEC: When Politics and Oil Mix 

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s second visit as premier to the Syrian capital, Damascus, should not be seen as a fleeting diplomatic moment, but should be viewed within the broader geopolitical context, as part of a determined, strategic attempt to reorganize and reformulate Syrian-Lebanese relations at a pivotal historical juncture marked by radical regional and international transformations.  … Continue reading Breaking the Cycle: A Historic Opportunity to Rebuild Syria-Lebanon Relations

On 17 May 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), noting that while the overall global risk remains low, national and regional risks are elevated due to ongoing transmission, population movement, weak health infrastructure, and the outbreak’s emergence in conflict-affected areas.  

Open-source satellite imagery has fundamentally altered the security landscape of the Middle East. Platforms such as Google Earth and commercially produced geospatial data have made forms of intelligence once associated with state militaries widely accessible to organizations, researchers, journalists, and non-state actors. This has enabled armed groups to monitor infrastructure, assess battlefield conditions, and shape… Continue reading Open-Source Visibility and Security Risks in the Middle East

The U.S.-Israel-Iran war has placed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — under growing economic pressure, though the nature and severity of this pressure vary considerably across the six states. These states now face a significant challenge. They must gauge the immediate impact of the conflict and assess their capacity to sustain economic stability under the strain… Continue reading Gulf Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Cost of Crisis Resilience

Introduction The U.S.-Israel-Iran war has disrupted higher education across the region. These effects have been particularly felt in Qatar, where the conflict has revealed the vulnerabilities in the current higher education model. The tensions have highlighted that branch campuses cannot, on their own, sustain Qatar’s status as an education hub or fulfill its long-term vision… Continue reading Higher Education in Qatar: Lessons from the U.S.-Israel-Iran War

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is facing a crisis of strategic identity and functional redefinition, with implications for its military and operational capabilities, the cohesion of its members, and its role. The Alliance, founded in 1949 with the signing of the Washington Treaty by 12 states, drew its original legitimacy from a deterrence logic directed at the Soviet Union. Today, however, NATO finds itself under mounting strain as growing divergences within the transatlantic alliance, compounded by longstanding U.S. demands for greater European burden sharing, overlapping crises across multiple regions that have exposed differences in American and European strategic priorities, and Washington’s gradual pivot toward the Indo-Pacific, increasingly reshape the Alliance’s internal dynamics and long-term trajectory.    

The U.S.-Israel-Iran war is more than a regional crisis. It has exposed the limits of global governance, accelerated the decline of post-Cold War assumptions, and pushed states to rethink security, globalization, and strategic adaptation in an emerging multipolar order.

Key Takeaways   From Pan-Arab Solidarity to Project-Based Regionalism: Gulf–Maghreb relations no longer reflect formal integration drives, but a focus on distinct projects and sectoral cooperation. This offers flexibility, but limits institutional depth. Divergences are Structural, Not Tactical: Disparities among Maghreb states in their Gulf engagement are not temporary or personality-driven. Rather, they reflect structural… Continue reading The Gulf-Maghreb Strategic Realignment

More than just the latest episode in a familiar cycle, the February 28, U.S.-Israeli airstrikes against Iran are a structural rupture for the Gulf, a moment after which the region’s security assumptions cannot simply be reassembled. Qatar had tirelessly but fruitlessly lobbied against renewed escalation. But within 48 hours of the first strikes, Iran had retaliated across all six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, and Qatar, home to the United States’ largest regional military installation and the world’s foremost liquefied natural gas (LNG) export complex, absorbed strikes that were, by design, both symbolic and structural.

Executive Summary The Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative (DGSHPI) was launched in 2024 by the Middle East Council on Global Affairs (ME Council), in partnership with the Gates Foundation and with the support of the Government of Qatar. This initiative emerged as a response to persistent challenges in many Global South health systems, where… Continue reading Annual Convening 2025 of the Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative